Day 17

Day 17 (Monday)

Today I went hiking a bit. I learned a few things too! For one, the view stinks most of the time because nobody really likes looking at the heels of someone else for an hour or more. Of course, the reward at the end is well worth it! Likewise, in our spiritual walks we may feel like we’ve been just going on forever without any breaks. We’re focused on staying on the path. Every once in a while, we take a moment to look around us and realize how far we’ve gone. We see the beauty that God has surrounded us with, and I’m not just talking trees and hills! The ultimate goal is to push through the pain and weariness so that in our, seemingly, constant uphill journey, we will eventually reach that place where we can rest, enjoy the view, and soak it all in.

Do I really need to go into why hiking is physically beneficial, especially when it’s in the hills or mountains? Come on! There’s cardio, circulation benefits, complete leg exercise, some core work (abs and lower back), and if it’s rocky, you really get those ankle ligaments a workout! So go hiking! Find a new path! Find a new view of the beauty that is God’s creation!

Day 16

Day 16

If there is anything I do know, it’s that the Christian walk has no shortcuts! Bummer, I know. If you want to find the quick and easy answers to life, you won’t find them here, nor anywhere else for that matter. You just have to keep studying the word, pushing yourself further in your walk, and striving for greatness in the Lord.

Likewise, your body doesn’t have shortcuts to health. Fad diets don’t work. Diets, per say, don’t work either. Typically, anything short of changing your eating habits altogether results in quick change to your desired goal and an equally rapid return to where you were just at. Pushing your body too hard, too fast, also ends up slowing you down in an injury rather than speeding up your walk to physical health.

So don’t try to shortcut the system. Go at the speed that’s right for you. Don’t go at someone else’s speed. God designed you uniquely. Appreciate that and learn to understand your own body and your own personal relationship with your Lord and Savior.

Day 15

Day 15

Yesterday was about parts (sort of). Well today is about a muscle area that get way too much work and is rarely treated properly…the neck! I mean it’s holding about 15 pounds all the time (except for when you’re sleeping)! If you held out your arm for as long as possible, you’d probably be feeling the burn within a few minutes. You know the neck is neglected each time someone sneaks up behind you to massage it for you and you are surprised to find how tense your neck is.

So what’s to be done about it? Sure you can exercise it! That does help strengthen it. However, we don’t really need to much. I mean that when you exercise your upper body, you typically are working your neck muscles to help balance your head and keep it from bouncing around. What’s probably more important to know is how to keep it from being worked too much. Relax! The answer is simple, although it can be difficult to do at times. Relax…yes, just relaxing can be so helpful to our physical and spiritual health but can be so hard for us to do. Don’t tense up. Here’s the deal. Working yourself too hard, especially when you don’t mean to leads to tense muscles, soreness, and exhaustion, but not the kind of exhaustion that helps build muscles and make you stronger. This kind just wipes you out. Sometimes your body can’t take the stress any more and gives you a painful message – that signal that shoots straight through you, contorting your neck and making you look like a confused dog with it’s head cocked to the side (except that your face isn’t as cute, especially when your face screams, “Oh my gosh. Was I just shot in the neck?!?!”)

So in the midst of exercising your body, mind, and spirit, remember to relax once in a while and to push yourself in only the intended areas.

Day 14

Day 14 (Thursday)

What do you do when you can’t do anything? We’ve all felt it before…that feeling that you’re out of the game. It’s not that you got picked last or anything; you’re injured. Granted, you’re not the best at it, but you should at least get a chance to show them what you’re capable of. If only the doctor hadn’t said you have to stay immobile for 6 weeks.

Okay, so this is, of course, a hypothetical situation that deals in an unstated category. Maybe you’re not physically out of the game; maybe you are. Spiritually, you might have strayed from the path so far that you can’t tell where you just came from and haven’t a clue where the path is at. Just when it seems like you can’t do anything to help your situation, there’s hope. There is always hope!

First, let’s realize that as in 1 Cor. 12, there are many parts of the same body. Each has a function and each needs to be strengthened. What parts are you ignoring? What parts have you forgotten? Typically, the parts that get injured aren’t the ones we focus on. I mean, who tries to strengthen joints when you can build muscle, right? It seems odd that we neglect the most important ones so often. Well now is that chance to focus on the forgotten muscles. You know you have them. Every time you go water skiing after a year off and feel those forgotten back muscles. Every time you play Ultimate Frisbee and feel those oblique muscles that you torqued like crazy! They’re there. Find them. Work them. As all parts of the physical body are important, each part of the spiritual body of Christ is also important. Sometimes we forget about certain parts of the body, which we shouldn’t, but we do. Let’s not forget each part is crucial to making the body function properly!

Day 13

Day 13

Scripture reading: Ecclesiastes 4:8-12

Buddy up! Sometimes the best way to push yourself to do something is peer pressure. Haha, I know. The one thing we tell ourselves to avoid and stand against is also the one thing that we thrive in. We are designed to live in holy community. So why not give into peer pressure, so long as it pushes you to be greater? Find someone to help you achieve your goals. Find a friend, your spouse, a class to enroll in, a church, anything! If you are the person that never has trouble staying committed to this kind of stuff, then good for you! Maybe you should be the one helping someone else… 

Day 12

Day 12

As in the body and in faith, we will build upon what already exists. Today we build on yesterday’s knowledge. Yesterday, I mentioned that balance is a key to Physicaly and Spiritual Health. We said that when we fail a little in one area, we need to exceed in another. Well, Men’s Health Total Fitness Guide 2009: Power Training calls this the “human factor”. I think that’s fitting. It says, “This factor is constantly changing based on fatigue, soreness, good days, bad days, etc.” Too true Mr. Remedios (the author)! Some days we feel great! Some days…not so much. The point is to balance what your body can do with what it does. Confused? Okay. If you normally run a mile a day, and because you were up too late last night, you feel like you can’t make it that mile, then DON’T. You still need to push yourself, but you don’t need to hurt yourself. On the contrary, if you got to bed last night, have been sticking to your workout regimen, and feel wonderful after running your mile today, then run more! If you usually do 15 pushups but aren’t tired after 15 today, do 20! You need to stick to the “overload principle” that we discussed. You still need to overload your body so that it can improve itself with whatever amount of effort that takes.

Spiritually, we have days that we feel we can do anything for the Lord. We could shout His name from a mountaintop. If you feel like that, then do it! If you feel the pressures of sin and the world crushing down on you, get some “rest”. Seek refuge in our Protector and don’t hurt yourself. Push yourself to find solace in a God who loves and renews you. Oddly enough, as simple as it is to come to God in a moment’s notice, so many of us have a difficult time giving Him control. Well get over yourself; push beyond yourself; push yourself into Him!

Day 11 (Monday)

Day 11 (Monday)

A balanced life is a healthy life. Sure, there’s yin and yang, but that’s not exactly what I’m talking about. At least, I don’t think I am anyway, but it’s similar. Just to throw this out there at the beginning, balance does not mean equal weighted sides/amounts/etc. Good should dominate evil to be a healthy balance. Sugars should be present but in far less proportion than other foods to be a healthy balance.

Physically speaking, you should workout your body in 2 directions equally – vertically and horizontally. You should also equally do pushing exercises and pulling exercises. You should work your upper body and lower body. You should work your front-side muscles and your back-side muscles.

You should balance exhausting/working your body with resting/refueling it.

Everything is connected in that balance. If your diet is thrown off, your body will feel the effects, affecting your energy, your mood, your decisions, and the list could go on and on. The beauty of the body and of God’s plan is that these things balance out. If you make a mistake, there’s still somewhere else to give to fix it. So sure, you could look at it as a spiraling series of changes occurring because one thing, or you could calm down and realize that if you ate those extra slices of pizza, you should just balance it by doing a few extra minutes of exercise. If you sinned, you should balance it by going to the cross and thanking God for balancing your life and for completely obliterating the scale of good and evil, of life and death!

Is your life balanced? What needs to give? Are you spending too much time working and not enough at home? Are you having enough fun? Are you having too much? Are you giving God enough?